Beijing, China

The first thing we notice is that Beijing is NOT like the rest of China. Taxis are metered, trash is in the cans, and people seem to spit and smoke less. (Still, the Olympics will definitely be a fiasco, more on that later). In about 4 days, we check off all the must-sees: The Forbidden City, Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven, and of course, The Great Wall. (The Great Wall is normally a 2.5 hr drive from Beijing, depending on your starting point, but our driver Joe made it in just under 2 despite a huge traffic jam by utilizing both the the left lane and bike lane, despite oncoming traffic and pedestrians).

We were also lucky to make a new friend in Beijing, Ivy, a friend of Ben Wigger (thanks, Ben!) She was able to answer A LOT of questions we’ve had about China, namely, why is Chairman Mao remembered as such a hero after causing the Cultural Revolution? (In the ‘70s Mao decided steel production was the future and forced everyone, including the farmers, to work in steel factories. And because there was no one left to grow food, 20-30 million people died. He’s also responsible other policies that don’t make tons of sense, like the one-child policy). Mao’s picture is EVERYWHERE, on t-shirts, watches, key chains, in restaurants, etc, and Chinese people line up every day to visit his mausoleum in Tiananmen Square. Ivy says people have mixed feelings about Mao, but he’ll always be remembered for uniting China.

Ivy (Chinese name Shenshen) also tells us a bit about her life and what it’s like to live in China...

She was born in 1980, the year the one-child policy went into effect, so she doesn’t have siblings. (Now parents can pay 100,000 rmb, or $12,500 USD, to the government for the second child, but that’s a lot of money on a Chinese salary). Her father was an artist, but when he was forced to work in a steel factory during the Cultural Revolution, he got sick and died. She works full-time at the Beijing Evening News as a graphic designer, but works too much and is looking for a different job. Interestingly, she works a normal U.S. 40 hour week and considers this a heavy load! Some day, she wants to leave China and live in a country where she can have lots of kids, but this means she’ll have to leave her mother behind, who is a widow now and will live alone. Obviously, it’s so sad to hear all this, especially as I only check in with the government on April 15!

I travel with a group of English teachers later who tell me the One-child policy has really negative social implications, ie most of their students are “little emperors” because their parents give them everything and don’t make them do their homework. As a result, the kids don’t learn anything and the teachers are held responsible.

Before leaving Beijing, I buy a Chinese laptop, which could prove to be a huge mistake but it’s really cheap because in China, you can negotiate prices on everything, even at the mall. I also see my first fat Chinese person at KFC, the West’s contribution to China (hey, I was only there getting coffee. I hit my quota on green tea a few weeks ago).

I'm looking at airfare to destinations in southern China. Beijing is WAY too cold…

Xian, China

China is experiencing the worst weather it’s had in about 50 years. Most of the east side is under heavy snow cover, and the entire country, even the southern parts that are always warm, are feeling the chill. Plus, Chinese New Year, also known as The Spring Festival, the biggest holiday of the year, and everyone is traveling home to be with their families. The holiday + bad weather combo makes travel even more of a mess with more delays and cancellations than usual. Flying is the best way to go now, as domestic airfare isn’t that expensive relative to the American dollar and a few planes have seats left.

It seemed too good to be true when, still determined to spend a few nights in a small town, we found cheap first-class flights to Wuhan in the Southwest. We were enjoying VIP treatment when some sort of disturbance broke out in the front cabin, and the two men in front of us started yelling at the flight attendant and shaking their fists towards the cockpit. And as neither Derek or I speak Mandarin, it took us a long time to figure out what was going on. Finally, a flight attendant announced in broken English, after several announcements in Chinese, that the flight was diverted due to bad weather and we were landing back in Hangzhou. Damn! We were so annoyed to have traveled all day for nothing that we booked a ticket to our next must-see stop, Xian, to avoid getting stuck somewhere in between.

Xian is the third oldest city in the world, after Alexandria and Istanbul, and also the fabled beginning and ending of the Silk Road. It’s on China’s central Plain, in the northwest area of the country. We came here to visit the Terra cotta warriors, a life-size clay army that was discovered in 1974 by a farmer who was just trying to dig a well. Now thousands of warriors have been discovered in the area, and the excavation is still in progress. The warriors were originally buried with weapons to protect Qin Shi Huang, China’s first emporer, in his afterlife (his mausoleum is nearby). Rumor has it Qin Shi Huang then killed the hundreds of slaves who helped build his warriors, to ensure the army’s location remained secret. The army is a must-see for anyone who is going to China, and the Chinese have dubbed it “the eighth wonder of the world.” The site is about 45 drive minutes from Xian, although the tour took all day, as most Chinese tour packages also include a visit to the guide’s sister’s neighbor’s silk factory, or her niece’s teacher’s jade emporium, where of course all items are for sale and shopping is highly encouraged.

On our last night in Xian, we walk along the city walls wearing all of our cold-weather gear, just to see if we need to buy more layers before hiking the Great Wall next week. Afterwards, we ditch the hostel and check into the Sofitel, one of the only five star hotels in Xian, mainly because I can’t remember the last time I was warm. (As Derek said, we’re either “penthouse or outhouse.”) It doesn’t seem like anyone in China turns on the heat. In Alaska, I always dressed warm outside, but was able to remove my layers inside, because it was always heated. Not so in China. People wear their parkas everywhere. Either heat is too expensive or the Chinese are a heartier breed.

Regardless, I really like Xian. It’s historic and modern city, with temples and pagodas beside malls and street vendors selling knock-offs. Everyone is walking around outside, all the time, and the town seems very busy and alive.

Hangzhou, China

We just arrived in Hangzhou, which is just a few hours outside of Shanghai. We were VERY excited to leave the big city for a small town. As it turns out, Hangzhou is a small town only by Chinese standards, which means about six million people live there!

Its so cold here that I have to buy a coat. It's my lucky day when the only parka in my size (XL) is also red (which means "happiness," and the Chinese wear A LOT of it) . People seem to be staring at me less, perhaps its because I just blend in so well with the parka, or because this town is more geared to tourists with five-star resorts and hi-end stores (Ralph Lauren, Versace, etc) where locals could never afford to shop (not that I can either).